April's Radiance

Well, it finally felt like spring this weekend. I spent just about every waking hour on the beaches from Cape Blanco to Yachats - doing a lot of spring scouting as well as shooting. I'm predicting a good crop of lupine on the coast this year. There are carpets of it shaping up real nice from Bandon on South. I even got a little sun burn goin' too!

This shot is from a weird little beach south of Yachats called Bob Creek Wayside. It has just about every flavor of Oregon Coast rolled into one small little area. I was going for a radiant, symmetrical look with the surf break and the wisps going away from the sun. Out of 50 or so exposures like this one, this was the most symmetrical wave of the bunch.

Thoughts? Comments? Complaints?

Thanks

Looks great to me Aaron. Did you have to blend to keep the luminosity under control? I like the way that the wave pattern in the sky mimics the wave below. They both have a "scallop" effect, and that fits very nicely with a coastal shot .

I might crop a bit of the sand off the bottom, it doesn't add much for me. Although, others may like it because it gives the wave room to run and adds to the sense of motion.

Thanks for the comment, John. I forgot to mention that I intend to crop some off of the bottom. Just haven't done it yet.

Yes - I did blend this. I used 2 exposures about 4 stops apart. I blended them as if I had used a reverse grad so the top portion didn't become too dark. I also double processed the darker frame for the very center of the sun to control highlights a bit further. Thats about it. Color and saturation was left pretty much unchanged.

Very nice, and well thought out exposure wise. :)

Beautiful pallet on this one, Aaron. Very nice.

I like it alot Aaron. You did a great job here working the symmetry between the cloud formations and the incoming wave. Color and exposure look good as well. Only thing I could see would be another smaller focal point in the immediate foreground. It looks just a little empty there. ( Weren't there any sea stars looking for a chance to be in a photo? )
Even without anything up front it has a simple and serene feel.

Echoing what Jesse said - all the sand at the bottom doesn't add anything imo. I'd crop to just below the two groups of bubbles roughly centered. One more thing I just noticed too - there's a faint ring around the lower 1/4 of the frame. I've had this happen to me once or twice, I don't know if its the lens being reflected in the grad or a really big flare or what, but it bugged the hell out of me in my shots. You can get rid of most of it by cropping.

That ring is lens flare. There also were a series of refractions running straight down the center of the frame that I cloned away. I saw the ring there, but it didn't bug me enough to fix it yet. I'll probably clean it up and crop if i ever decide to print this.

Thanks for the good input. You guys have eagle eyes.

Looking pretty sweet, Aaron...

Very nice Aaron! I love the contrast of the wave action with the stillness of those bubbles. Great clouds as well. Cool shot!